This forum is a wealth of information, that I'm trying to sift through as and when I can, so as not to repeat the same questions.
I will however ask one that I so far haven't seen, it regards the expiry of a U.S. Visa.
Assuming everything goes according to plan and at some point in time all the t's are crossed etc and a spousal visa is approved does anyone know if there is some sort of time frame that you have to immigrate within, from it all being approved ?
I ask this as my wife and I have a house to sell and obviously have no idea how long that will take and while I recognise it's impossible to have everything work out as we would like it, I was wondering if we have the visa approved before the house sells, how long it would be good for so to speak.

6 months from the date of the medical usually.

Incidentally, many of us have completed sales of our houses remotely.

6 Months, I believe.

Wow, you guys are quick!!
Thank you so much.
I never thought about the sale being done remotely, hopefully it won't come to that but it's definitely an option, thanks again.

Another option is to go ahead and immigrate, and if the sale of the house is close at hand, return to the UK to finalize it. A trip of a couple of months won't raise red flags.

You also might want to ask (or research) over in the main USA forum to see how the sale of the home might affect you tax-wise, if the sale happens after you become a US PR.

Rene

when my DH had his last green card, we flew over and activated it on a holiday and then came back to the UK for a few months while we finalized other things. I think we came back for 2-3 months so that is always a possibility too.

So far we've had no luck selling our house, but we are proceeding with the forms for us to move to the states. I still have a few basic questions that I'd like some help with.
My wife is a USC, I'm a UKC and we've been married for 7 years now, living in the UK.
My wife is retired and on a pension I'm willing and able to work, we have savings but I'm wondering is there a set amount we must have in the bank before we qualify for my visa?
We have plenty family members in the US more than willing to be sponsors, would this make a difference, to how much we'd need to be able to qualify?
Having been married for this long do we still have to go through the same paperwork,interviews etc as all applicants ?

1. Go to www.uscis.gov and look at form I-864 and instructions. Also look at form I-864P to see the income dollar figures. If your USC spouse doesn't qualify financially, a joint sponsor can be used. Details are in the instructions.

2. Yes, you still must take all the steps in order to receive the immigrant visa. The good thing about being married more than 2 years is that you get an IR-1 class of visa which gives you a 10 year green card upon entry to the USA.

Rene

Thank you Rene, I appreciate you're quick response and taking the time to help me..

I've successfully sold two houses in the UK from the US now. It is quite doable, you just need to make sure your solicitor and estate agent are onboard: IME it doesn't make much difference to the estate agent, but the solicitors I've dealt with have varied in what they've required me to sign in person before returning to the US and what can be done via email or snailmail. You'll probably find that the solicitors are a bit less tech-savvy than the estate agents: when selling my late father's house this year, the solicitor's emails always took the form of a letter typed up by their secretary, signed and then scanned and emailed to me as a PDF!

Thanks rpjs but I doubt I can keep up the mortgage payments as well as move to the states. At least not for too long. We'd need all our savings etc to get on our feet.
I know there's always the letting option but I don't think it's viable.

You haven't mentioned your ages but you have said that your wife is retired and receiving a pension. Is this pension UK based? Is she old enough to collect US Social Security if she worked in the US for 40 quarters during her lifetime? Is she eligible for Medicare? Have you thought of what the high cost of medical insurance is going to do to your budget when you are living in the US if she isn't and if you don't find employment with benefits?

Being retired, as I am experiencing first hand, is hard in the US with little government assistance available to US citizens and almost none available to immigrants.

Hello, Wife here! My pension is US based it came with me so in that we are fine. I can sign into Medicare as soon as we know we are moving for certain. Several relatives have "employment connections" with medical insurance and dental, so we hope that part will work in our favor. I have kept a US bank account the entire time I have lived here and kept my drivers license current, so two more things not to be concerned with. Our biggest questions are how much are we going to need "money wise" to appease the visa folks? And waiting for this house to sell. Is there a limited time on the visas? Has anyone incurred any last minute bumps in the road to getting their visas?

That really does nothing for you, because you can't be added to their employment based insurance plans.

Our biggest questions are how much are we going to need "money wise" to appease the visa folks? [/quote]
Did you look at the I-864 form and instructions, and the I-864P as I suggested? All the answers are there.

I'm not sure what you mean by this question. Previously we told you that the visa will be valid for 6 months from the date of the medical exam. What do you mean by "limited time on the visa"? And why plural? Are you getting more than 1 visa?

Sometimes can happen, yes, if one is placed into admin processing for further background/security checks, or if something is missing that the ConOff wants to see, then they ask you to provide it before issuing the visa.

Rene

So are your pension funds immediately available to you, now? Or do you have to wait until you're a certain age to withdraw the funds?

Rene